The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[Winski]

I just love a goalscoring keeper

[XaW]

XaW - Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur - Season 2022 - Inkasso-deild karla

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

The first season in Iceland went well. We bounced up and down the table, but eventually settled in a nice 5th place. Ending only 4 points behind the promotion spot sounds nice, but we were also only 8 points ahead of the relegation zone! So things are close here, and we flirted with both going up and down this season. Now that we just had our first intake, I should be able to let a good chunk of the horrible original players go, and try to slowly transition into a youth only side.

The club has quite the good youth setup, so no improvements this season. I did get accepted that I work for the first badge though, so I hope it finished soon. Financially we are struggling a bit, so I hope we can go up into the top tier soon.

Deildabikar: We finished 2nd in our group behind KR, but ahead of Grindavík, Akureyrar, Afturelding, and Fjölnir, but didn't progress. 
Bikarkeppni karla: We beat Berserkir, Elliði, and Víðir before we lost to Vestmannaeyja in the quarter final. 

Youth intake:

A very good intake with a lot of players with good potential.

He is a good defender in several positions and will fit in nicely.

Quote

U19s:

They only played friendlies.

Trophy cabinet

None

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

13 hours ago, lewis999 said:

Just tried starting my save in Greece. Loaded up the leagues and then before I went to holiday I just checked the club I want to take over and they only have 2 players despite me loading all their leagues. Anyone know why this could be happening?

Chances are you'll also run into the issue with the Greek second division requiring 10 homegrown at club players in the matchday squad. Seems like it will be fixed with the FM release, but not sure if the fix will apply to existing saves.

[libbyshuss]

2029/2030 (season 8)

Vanarama National league North

Season Summary

Our best season for a long time!

League - We started with a really good unbeaten run and went top in September. We stayed there until December when we played second place Blyth Spartans, lost to them, then drew the next two games. Suddeny they were 5 points clear at the top and everytime we got close we seemed to draw 2 or 3 on the bounce. With 4 games left, we lost to Blyth again and then 3rd placed Grimsby before winning our final two games to finish second and qualify four our fourth successive play-off campaign. 

So into the play offs! finishing seocnd gave us home advantage. We beat Kings Lynn 4-2 in the semi to set up a final against Grimsby. It was a narrow game and....

we lost! fourth time in a row we fail in the play-offs!!!

FA Cup - to be honest, this might be the reason we had such a good league run. We got FM'd in the 3rd qualifying round by Chester so had a few free weekends. It really helped with fitness!

 

Players

I was a bit worried before the season started as two of our best players left when their contracts expired. But we coped well. Next season might be  a struggle as Danny Rowe and Jonny Burn are nearly 35 and have been key players for us since day 1. I'm gonna miss them.

Justin Stevens 28A - An absolute revelation! 26 goals and 12 assissts from left wing is not too shabby, especially in his first full season. I'm thinking of retraining him as a striker as his attributes are perfect and he's already accomplished there. will be key in next seasons attempt at promotion

Michael Gallagher 24A - much better season and back amongst the goals but really he's a midfielder and I think he'll be returning there for next season

 

youth

Another intriguing preview!

and another nice intake. But really 4 star potential is fairly meaningless at this level sadly.

 

Finances and Upgrades

We got loads of money and I kept on whining at the board to give me some upgrades and they kept refusing until one day in April when....

Every little helps!

 

Career

It's a slow process but I'm making progress. I'm gonna keep chipping away because I can feel it getting closer!

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I just got my first international call up for one of my FC United players.

He is a regen called Gwion Owen and he just got called up to the Wales Under 18's.

He is only 16 years old but he is looking very good already

[Ronaldo Beckham]

FC United Season 4 Youth Intake - The Scots Have Invaded Manchester

The first 4 top prospects are Scottish. No idea why but I aint complaining. 

Here are the other prospects.

[Weed07]

Finished my 3rd season with Barwell and we got relegated so i was sacked. We started off ok but ultimately the squad wasn't good enough, we got lucky the first 2 seasons staying up as the players that started at the club were rubbish and all youth players have been rubbish so it was only a matter of time, theres only so much you can do when the players aren't good enough and my 30 years experience playing FM wasn't enough without getting a lot of luck with the youth intakes.

You can read more about it here https://sparkomarcogaming.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/football-manager-2022-beta-youth-only-challenge-season-3/

I'm not going to try again at this time, maybe later in the year, i like to have one save per FM so will turn my manager into a journeyman and see where the save takes me. Good luck for anyone else trying this challenge, i will continue to follow your updates.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2035/36 Youth Candidates

Another good intake!  

[Daddy]

 

Youth was not really developing. Coaching wasn't great so training suffered. Board wouldn't improve much. With the older players falling off I made the calculated risk to sell off the older guys and ride or die with the youth players. 

 

it didn't go great! On to the next one!

[MoonMonster]

East Kilbride F.C.

I’m giving this challenge another go this year! I didn't have as much time to do it last year.

I’m heading off to Scotland to take charge at East Kilbride. I’ve actually managed them in a journeyman save I did a few years ago and they sacked me after three seasons, so hopefully this goes better.

 

 

 

Manager Profile

 

 

Season Preview

 

  

Squad

 

 

It should be an interesting challenge given how small the squad is. Hopefully our first intake gives us a few decent players mainly a keeper or two.

Edited November 2, 2021 by MoonMonster

[Ronaldo Beckham]

FC United Season 4 Review

Play Off Final

Season Overview

Accolades

My 3 strikers Keaton Mulvey, Cedric Main and Yeray were the main reasons I got promoted with them banging in the goals to help me get promoted. 

My first team now has 5 players from the Youth Academy playing regular football for FC United. 

I am hoping to get the whole team full of youth academy players in the next season or two.

Transfers

[The Gold Guard]

OFK Beograd - Year 8 (2029/30)

Tables | Squad | Season XI | Overall XI

The first half of the season was magical.
A beautiful moment of bliss where I had a complete side.
January came by again and ruined that mysticism when I lost my new target man I had nurtured for 3 years just for my president to take the cash straight away without thinking. So annoyed. 

The Winter Collapse came in harder than ever and I think we only won 2 games after February.
We were very fortunate to finish in the top half because if we were on the other side, we would probably be in the relegation play-offs honestly.
Lots of learning, lots of growth, lots of games next pre-season. Time to get into the grind again!

Transfers | Finances

Losing Mitko Stojanov (25B) was rough due to him not accepting a contract renewal with us but Matjia Simunovic (27A) was the ultimate punch to the guts.
Finally had the finishing product and it dipped away. Thankfully, the deal looks like we could potentially squeeze out the million euros we deserve. Happy he won the league as well.

Previous OFK Beograd products including Dusan Vlahovic and Boban Janicevic (24F) helped bring in a mighty amount of board-convincing cash for youth facility investment.
A lot of players I believe won’t have much impact in the future were let go. It’s getting to the point now where you just can’t keep everyone happy so I say to that: ‘go be happy somewhere else’
Just remember once you leave, you can't come back. Whilst you are a player of course...

Preview | Intake

Yes, yes, yes. Very good. I am happy with this.
Getting defenders in youth intakes to be future stars is INTEGRAL if you want to succeed in this challenge. It is nice to know my stocks are not thin.
Notable talents include:

Blagoje Markovic (30A) | Zoran Petkovic (30B) | Sasa Vukovic (30C)

Healthy Crops: 

Denis Savija (27L)

Has taken over the reigns of the backline well. Not as great of a season as last season but due to the winter collapse, that was not solely his fault.

Vladimir Lazic (27F)

A big step up when my veterans got injured or suspended. One for the future.

Nenad Trajkovic (29B)

I hope he is for the future but clubs are already stalking him. We shall see how long I can keep him before it gets too much for my club president. 

Matyas Meszaros (26C)

The fool. He decided to switch to Serbia for NT selection and his form has gone completely whack. What an absolute fool. Still reliable for me for club level, however...

Ahmed Zubanovic (25D)

I thought I would put him back in defence but he seems to have claimed the right midfield spot since some future prospect defenders decided to step up. Fair enough, I say. This boy is born to run.

 

Good luck to all, I hope my journey inspires newcomers to try out a fallen giant rendition of the YAC as a way to get in to the game.
So many of you are doing it rough & tough, it makes me sad when I see your story cut-short - but such is the life of this path.
Shoutout to @libbyshussand @Makoto Nakamurafor doing an awesome job in the UK. Really inspiring stuff!
Thanks to all for chucking me an upwards arrow of positivity whenever I post an update. Always makes my day xoxo
Don't forget to install HoverZoom+ on your browser to see my posts properly  - less clatter and clunkiness that way 

Edited November 3, 2021 by The Gold Guard

[lewis999]

18 hours ago, XaW said:

Some times teams don't have more players than that, and you have to settle for a lot of greys until the youth intakes comes along! Not an easy save!

They did last year and I have since found out that they have been accepted into the playable 2nd tier in 2021/22 but it was after data lock. (2 days ago) So I doubt it will be fixed. Would love to hear from anyone trying to do Greece. 

[lewis999]

9 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Chances are you'll also run into the issue with the Greek second division requiring 10 homegrown at club players in the matchday squad. Seems like it will be fixed with the FM release, but not sure if the fix will apply to existing saves.

Yeah I doubt that will be fixed with existing saves. My idea is to wait until the 9th, run a holiday and see what happens. The Greek second and third tier has been re-structured irl. the team I want to be (Kavala) were supposed to be in the 3rd tier until 2 days ago where they got accepted late into the 2nd tier so no idea what is going to happen.

[Daddy]

Going to give England a whirl. Picked Warrington as where I live in Pennsylvania is near a little town named Warrington (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_Township,_Bucks_County,_Pennsylvania). 

Club Vision:

Media Preview:

Club Facilities:

Last time I tried in England I didn't have a goalie, this time I do. Hopefully this run goes better!

[Solsol]

Let's give this a go! Fortuna Köln it is! 

 

 

 

Chose Germany as it feels for me like the country where this might be a real life project for someone someday, also it is close to my heart so it made a lot of sense. Early thoughts: Not the worst of starting conditions but this is my first crack at this so who knows what is good and what is bad for this challenge. 

Manager Profile as well: 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Solsol

[Slipky]

July 2024 - De Treffers - Holland

Started the 2022 iteration of this challenge after winning it with Ashton United. Wish me luck!

[szasinka]

Torslanda Idrottsklubb - Sweden - Superettan (Tier2) - 2026: season 6 review

Intro

<FM21 - custom, edited database used>

- League  - Squad  - Finance - Transfers -

League

Only the fellow newly promoted Team TG FF was semi-profession side other than us, rest of the league is professional clubs. My plan was to overtake them and one other struggling Superettan side. Whohoo we made much more. In the first half of the season we occupied comfortable place at position 8. After that we started seriously declining and barely grabbed any points. Out of our 37 points we get only 12 during the second half of the season. Nonetheless it was still a great result but It is really a red light that we should keep our focus better and maybe give more rest to my starting eleven. Best player was Lindh once again but Rudin also contributed greatly and Hjelm joined to them as our best defender. 

Youth intake

The board approved our upgrade request so we have Good junior coaching and Adequate youth recruitment. These are quite good ratings on this level, only Brommapojkarna has better noticeable better facilities but they are famous for their youth academy. 

So the intake for this year was disappointing. Gustavsson the only real prospect who can make into the senior squad but it is still a long shoot. However we have a prospect with Model Citizen personality, never get before. I really hope that our next intake can only be better than this.

He have mediocre PA, hope our HoYD wrong here and he will develop nicely.

Other - manager thoughts

We make around 50K EUR loss per month but the price money really helped us at the year end. We spent it immediately  Our Youth training facilities will be upgraded but only will be completed during the next season. So far I managed to keep all of my players but it will be a real challenge. I tend to give a high asking price (750K-1000K EUR) during negotiation that frighten away the bigger Sweden teams and if the player become unhappy due to high asking price I ask other players to convince him. It is worked so far.

Edited November 3, 2021 by szasinka

[szasinka]

Catch up post I made a progress during the weekend and with this update I reach myself.

Torslanda Idrottsklubb - Sweden - Superettan (Tier2) - 2027: season 7 review

Intro

<FM21 - custom, edited database used>

- League  - Squad  - Finance - Transfers -

League

I was proud for my youths in the last season but they managed to raise the bar even more. I changed our basic formation once again to 5-2-3 wide, I did not have this habit before. I usually stick with one working tactic and train player into it, even with position retraining. For now I think it will remain for a while as it is granted a great season to us. We challenged the top through the season and our usually collapse come much later. During the last five match we draw three times and lost twice. It means that we dropped from second to third position in the end. Injury of starter GK, Blank and one of our star player, Rudin did not help us but we played badly anyway. We would not get more points with them from these games.

We qualified to the promotion playoff against the former Superettan champions, Degerfors IF. We had a great luck during the whole season, we won at least five games where we played clearly weaker then our opponents and we get this luck once again. Beat Degerfors to 5-2 at home where they have slightly better xG.

However the second leg still put us back to the earth and ended our fairytale. A heavy 6-2 loss....  Still it was a great season and showed that we have a good shoot to the promotion with some luck. 

Youth intake

Finally. Better, much better than last year. Our improved junior coaching and youth recruitment starts kicking in. Its shame that Numminen has a bad personalities, I would sign him if he had a half bad but this casual personality really kill my dream. A great Finnish youth.

Sjöberg a great candidate for my Box-to-box role in the midfield.

Forssell has bad determination but I like him the most from our GK talents so far. With my Iron ruling he will improve his determination that's sure. He will be my first choice rather soon as he is just little weaker than Blank. 

Other
I still managed to keep all of my important players so far but it seems it will changed sooner than I wanted. The most crucials are my front three, Lindh, Axel Larsson and Rudin. After the end of this reported season during 2028 January Axel Larsson handed a transfer request that I turned down and Rudin also unhappy with his high asking price and cannot be convinced to drop it... at least Lindh did not get any offer (which is strange as he banged 35 goals). The chairmen do not step in so far but we started to get offers in a region where I fear that they will accept one. The clouds gather...

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by szasinka

[Libertine13]

Last season I gave the Ultimate Challenge a go, whilst I enjoyed the journeyman aspect of a save, it just wasn't what I've been used to in previous instalments of FM, I'd much rather build up a club from the depths of their football pyramid. So here I am, giving this challenge a go.

I decided to choose a nation that I haven't managed in for this, Germany was the destination. By the time I'd caught up with the rest of this thread I was already one season deep and I'd managed to choose a team that someone else has already started with... 

Out of the four promoted teams I went with the club that I had heard of, a club that had some recent history of competing in the Bundesliga, Energie Cottbus. Apologies to @Elsjorro for taking the same route, maybe we can spur each other on in this challenge! Season 1 update to follow.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Libertine13

[XaW]

XaW - Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur - Season 2023 - Inkasso-deild karla

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

A good season here, as we finished in the same spot, but with more points than last season. The first few seasons is all about getting in youth players and phase out the older original players for me. So that part is well on its way.

We are losing serious money, each and every month. We do need something to happen here otherwise it's not looking good for the long term future.

Deildabikar: We finished 3rd in our group. Behind Vestmannaeyja and Haukar, but ahead of Víkingur R, Afturelding, and Þór.
Bikarkeppni karla: We beat Kórdrengir before we lost to FH in the 3rd round.

Youth intake:

A strong intake with loads of talented players.

Speedy and decent technique and dribbling is nice for a winger. Needs some work on crossing though.

Quote

U19s:

They only played friendlies.

Trophy cabinet

None

[Winski]

Just 4 games left to play, look how close it is!! We've got a very difficult program, because we need to play against the nr. 5(Grótta), nr 4(Leiknir R.) and nr. 3(HK).

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Panachaiki - Youth Intake - March 2023

Still playing the Greek save for now, but may restart upon full release if I encounter any more problems with the save. This is a very talented intake however, and the addition of HGC players will help with squad selection requirements.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Kosmas Tsivginidis (23a) will get playing time over a greyed-out player at M(L) as soon as I can sign him to a professional contract, since youth contracted-players cannot play league matches in Greece. A Fairly Professional personality will hopefully spell development.

Spoiler

Stelios Kalamidas (23b) will be the main competition for the above prospect.

Spoiler

Alexis Karybas (23g) is really intriguing. I haven't decided whether to play him as a BWM(D) or as a DLF(A), both roles I think he could grow into. Unfortunately, the Ambitious personality with 16 determination means that his professionalism is low, or else he could have a Fairly Ambitious personality.

Spoiler

[Libertine13]

2022/23

One win in our first ten games really questioned whether I'm up for this challenge or not, it didn't help that in my determination to keep hold of three of our better players when offers came in, the whole squad were on my back and questioning my ability and authority.

The board kept faith with me through this early spell of poor results and an unhappy dressing room, thankfully. And with a realisation of having to play a more simple style of direct football we managed to pull ourselves clear of the relegation zone. In fact we went from strength to strength, slowly rising up the table and finishing 6th. Remarkably we only lost twice in the second half of the season!

It was looking like experienced centre half, Matthias Rahn, would end up as our top goal scorer. His 6'5 frame, 18 jumping and 17 heading ability made him one hell of a threat from set pieces as he grabbed 10 goals in 34 appearances! But our Russian forward, Maximilian Proichev, found his shooting boots in the second half of the season to top the goal scoring charts for us.

On to the reason why we're here... We were hopeful of an excellent intake of youth this season.

 

There were 6 players regarded as elite talents that came through, all with very high potential but a little low on the current ability as you'd expect. I personally think Ali Akbulut (Attacking Midfielder) could possibly end up in the first team squad come the end of next season.

The board had pretty much turned me down for any requests to improve the youth system or the development of youth players, probably due to the poor club finances. However they did decide to look into building a new stadium!

[karax268]

 

Very nice intake. I've lost some depth in ST and CD in pre-season so some may slid right into the first team

[Winski]

Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur
Season 2022 (season 1)
League Table | Competition overview | Transfers | Finances | Facilities | Youth intake | Manager profile | Club Overview

 

What a fantastic first season!! We gained promotion to Pepsi Max deild karla! On the final day we lost at home against HK, which means that HK became Champion and we finished 2nd on goal difference. But I can't complain, because I'm very happy that we promoted in our first season!

Best player by far was our left winger Viktor Örn Guðmundsson, the veteran of the team and by far our best player. Some other good players for us this season were GK Emil Andri Auðunsson, who not only had fantastic saves, but also scored 2 goals for us from Free Kicks, young defender Hákon Dagur Matthíasson and striker Pétur Hrafn Friðriksson.

We managed to upgrade our junior coaching twice! So that is now labelled "Excellent".

And because of the promotion, the club is turning professional

This is a difference comparing to FM21, where IR was professional from the start. But it's nice to turn professional so soon.

Youth intake
Our first youth intake was good. Our HoYD isn't that special, and we were semi-professional, so I did not expect any wonders. There are some good youngsters though.

Spoiler

[Mr U Rosler]

Season 2

Season 2 wasn’t much different than Season 1. I was messing with tactics which didn’t help, until I settled on a diamond formation in January. We flirted with the relegation zone without me feeling panicked at any point as the 4 teams below us were picking up very few points.

Getting through a couple of FA Cup rounds helped the finances, this included knocking out National League Oldham.

My intake 1 Striker Harry Roscoe soon become first choice, he had a decent season but only improved modestly and his determination is still a problem. My Centre Back Bjork also played a lot, has improved but is still only my 4th best centre back and doesn’t improve the 1^st team.  

I dished out a fair few caps to my 1^st intake, but very few are making any real progress. I guess our facilities are just too poor. We managed top raise Youth Recruitment from basic to fairly basic.

Intake 2

The only hope is intake 2, they are of a higher standard than intake 1 with much better personalities. We have a couple of very promising central midfielders who, whilst not strengthening the 1^st team at the moment, do not weaken it. I can offload a couple of higher paid players and hopefully make enough of a profit to start upgrading either facilities or Junior Couching/Youth Recruitment.

Nice passers for this level.

 

Season 3 preview 

Not overly optimistic but aiming for top half, outside chance of play offs largely on the back of a settled tactic & formation. Again targeting good cup runs to raise finances to start improving our off-field situation which should in turn lead better intakes and quicker development of players. 

[Pauldinho7]

Another season completed in Liga NOS for Beira Mar and another improvement (just about) on last season!

Got to hope we can avoid having our best players taken and we might be able to have a look at the top six now some of the youth players are hitting good stats.

The youth intake was also pretty good, with the left back Varin potentially going in as my starting fullback in the coming season...

[Elsjorro]

Wanted to share this one with you guys:

 

 

Christmas is coming early this year. 2 Good CB's, one good AMC, 2 good strikers and a decent VMC. Lets hope we get what is promised. It looks like upgrading some youth facilities really payed off. 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2035/36 End of Season Review

We beat TNS again! A final day defeat means we finish in 3rd again, still performing above expectations!

   

 

Overall Best XI

2035/36 Best XI

Bobby Turner (YP11n)

Mikey Berry (YP8a) - Danny Ellis (YP9a) - Steve Dunn (YP12l) - Issufo Muwanei (YP10h)

Kevin Jones (YP2i)

George Veale (YP10a) - Jordan Hall (YP10m)

Steve Bradley (YP8b)                                                       Kerry Evans (YP12a)

Martin Smothers (YP12g)

[hairbearuk]

Joining the party with Scarborough (up The Seadogs) and we had a fairly successful first season. Finished mid-table but with awful end of season form and two of the first 11 retiring we'll be giving the new lads some game time sooner rather than later.

Some decent prospects in the intake with Rogerson, Pollock, Thompson and Gyamfi-Diarra probably featuring from the start of next season.

Off the field our youth recruitment was improved to fairly basic and I bagged my first coaching licence. We also had a change of chairman but with no real changes, his first act was to offer me a new contract so obviously a smart dude.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Our 2nd ever player sale and our first £100,000+ transfer fee, 16 year old Martin scored 4 goals in 5 games for us this season and now he's off to the big boys.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

   

Panachaiki - End of Season - June 2023

 

What a season this was. Not entirely sure what kind of impact the HGC rule had on all the clubs, but it meant we needed to play two greyed-out players in the starting XI and fill 7 more on the bench. Just a simple 4-4-2 worked wonders at limiting opponent chances and creating just enough to get by ourselves. This was helped by our 37-year-old ST(C) finishing as the second highest league goalscorer. Finances are hovering around zero with the chairman injecting enugh finds to keep us from going entirely bankrupt. Our wage expenditure is miniscule, so not much we can do to turn a profit at the moment. Next season will be tough in the Greek top flight. Luckily there is no automatic relegation, so we will always have a chance to win the playoff against the best second tier side if we end up finishing last in the top flight. Three of our starters are retiring after this season however, so there will be holes to fill.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

[Makoto Nakamura]

We don't need another goalkeeper but our central midfielders are amongst the oldest in the squad...age 20, so it may be time for some new blood. 

[Braumiller]

Ok, FM22 is going to be a dutch delight!  Holidayed my 3 seasons and vv Katwijk are my new team.

Katwijk is a lovely little seaside town (according to wikipedia!) on the North Sea, somewhat equidistant between Amsterdam and The Hague.

 

I'll put a proper post together once I get going, and looking to do a little something different for my seasonal updates...... 

[XaW]

 

XaW - Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur - Season 2024 - Inkasso-deild karla

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Another pretty good season, but we struggle to score enough goals. One of my centre backs was top scorer with 6... So I hope to improve on that next season.

Still losing all the money!

Deildabikar: We went unbeaten, but still only finished 3rd in the group. Behind Víkingur R. and Breiðablik, but ahead of Leiknir R., Tindastóll, and Keflavík.
Bikarkeppni karla: We beat KH and Snæfell before we lost to Akraness in the 4th round.

Youth intake:

More central defenders... Good, I guess, but I also need other positions.

He looks like a very good central defender with impressive physicals.

Quote

U19s:

They only played friendlies.

Trophy cabinet

None

[iacovone]

Youth Intake No.4 - 2026

Okay it's another excellent intake (just like the previous three) but I'm not overly enthused again really. Unless this keeper really is something he won't be displacing the current no.1 and it's just not a position we're worried about at the moment. It feels like another year to keep improving our top prospects but maybe that centre-back will be a surprise, we do need one of those in fairness.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2036/37 Youth Candidates

No standouts but still a very good group of players.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Makoto Nakamura

[jstu9]

The Magic Season 4

Gutted

One goal from being auto-promoted. One goal from being promoted in the promotion mini league.

So back to the grind. I've already played into July, lost my 4.5 star Sibusio Ngidi and 4 star Mzwakhe Solomons (he improved dramatically this season). I do have my star keeper for a couple more seasons. I know I won't be able to keep him but I have a couple 1 star youngsters I'll need to give some time to. And shock of the shock, my 5 star DC Percy Mbatha actually re-signed. So I have him for another year. I've been looking for a striker for 4 seasons. The two who had promise are gone.

Another really good youth pull.

Other teams have already sniffed around offering peanuts for some of these guys.

 

[WhiteCat33]

RAAL La Louviere - Belgian Pro League A (Season 7)

Performance

This will be the first of 2-3 seasons where I phase out my legacy attacking talent. Right now the replacements are 16-18 and that is reflected in the results this season. Finished 2 spots lower than last season, but with similar points. Really just didn't have the luck of ties going my way this time. U-18's did excellent though winning the league, which is good considering the challenge I'm doing. 

     

 

Current Team

You can tell my legacy striker was poor this season when the 16 year old substitute gets the seasonal best eleven. Of those in the squad there is Kiala who will be leaving for a transfer fee this summer, Casali Ducasse and Siyuan are young prospects who are rotating through to see if they'll stick. The other 4 Academy players are possible long term squad players with my ' Serranno brothers' at LB & RB. Both of these are slowly improving and aren't super ambitious to leave so have so far been not a worry of departures. Jehl as my BBM and I just locked him into a 4 year contract so even when he gets upset about wanting to leave he's stuck and he can use that aggression to take his unhappiness out on the other team.  Renard whose a utility midfielder who swaps between DLP & CAM mostly is the only intake from the holiday season that I use, and he's a solid all around sub to have. 

Ruben Serrano

Ludovic Serrano

Rene Jehl

Rayan Renard

 

Finances & Kiala Transfer

The team was broke, dead broke. Belgium doesn't give any prize money for the league. This summer I will be purging a ton of chaff players. The way the salary work is unless they are on a youth contract, the minimum contract is 23k a year. And none of my intakes will sign youth contracts, they all want real contracts, so when i have 10 incoming academy players a year I keep that gets expensive on the wage bill. Add that on top of the youth expenses and yeah, this happens...

Thankfully we have Kiala to save us! When I tried to renegotiate his contract he insisted on a low release clause (3 M) and a huge salary (4x my highest paid player) so it was obvious its time to go. He's done very well in Belgium getting voted the 2nd best African player in the league two seasons running scoring 7 goals for us this season with a 7.26 average rating. He's been stellar overall at 6'5" he is dominant in the back and also is decent enough at penalties he's helped us win those shootouts in the cup. Sad to see him go, but heading to Inter for 7.9 M is perfect for both of us. that $4.2M up front will solve our current financial disaster, and getting 1.85M a year for the next two will enable us to stay in the green at our current budget. And hey maybe some silly team in England will overpay for him in the future so we can reap a second juicy transfer.

Youth Intake

Had a solid preview

Got decent prospects in the actual intake

I messed up the screenshots for the players so these are from the end of the season. The most important immediately is Jerome Bouchez 29i at CD as its time for my star Congo International CB to move on. He'll be the sub this season while last years intake takes the starting spot. 

Lars van Doorn 29d might bake a good BBM.

Manager Thoughts

Going to be bumpy for the next couple years. Hopefully my young defender can fill into the back line like Kiala did 2 years ago. Other than that I'll be able to return with the same defense and midfield next year and just suffer some ineffective offense for a couple more seasons.

[Daddy]

Youth Intake Update:

Not ideal. Hopefully they E grades come in a little stronger. Team is playing very well, but there are some old players that will need replacing fast.

[libbyshuss]

2030/31 (season 9)

Vanarama National League North

Season Summary

League - we went unbeaten for the first 16 games of the season! but we did draw 8 of those games. Once we did lose though, the lossess started piling up. Our form after Christmas was sporadic at best and we almost fell out of the play-off spots. In the end we just scraped in

We won the first round on penalties, then lost in the play off semif final to Chelmsford City after extra time.

That's 5 play-offs in a row now! But it's not as frutrating as you'd think as we're making steady progress off the pitch. It will happen!

FA Cup - another disappointingly early exit, this time to Southport

 

Players

An odd season for some of my better players...

Justin Stevens 28A - So I moved him up front and he scored and assissted far fewer than he did last season at left wing

Michael Gallagher 24A - Moved into centre midfield and was brilliant! scored just as many as he did last season when he was up front!

Gareth Savage 27A - still only ow determination because the bugger refuses to play poorly enough to be fined!

Danny Rowe - My best legacy player is finally retiring!

 

Youth

A really nice looking preview!

And the intake wasn't too bad

Terry Modest could be good but the real star was:-

Straight into the first team!

 

Finances and Upgrades

Finances were strong and finally my constant badgering of the board paid off!

We now have a ridiculous set-up for our level. Next seasons youth intake should be a cracker!!

 

Career

[Makoto Nakamura]

2036/37 End of Season Review

Not as good of a season as we lost 3rd place but at least we hung on to qualify for Europe again which is all I can ask for.

  

   

 

2036/37 Best XI

Bobby Turner (YP11n)

Mikey Berry (YP8a) - Danny Ellis (YP9a) - Steve Dunn (YP12l) - Issufo Muwanei (YP10h)

Ethan Roberts (YP13g)

George Veale (YP10a) - Jordan Hall (YP10m)

Lewys Giles (YP12b)                                                       Kerry Evans (YP12a)

Martin Smothers (YP12g)

[Libertine13]

@Makoto NakamuraHow confident are you of toppling TNS? On FM21 I started the Ultimate Challenge in Wales, spent a few seasons there and just couldn't catch them and that was with an established Welsh League club. 

[Winski]

It's only a friendly, but still: a beauty

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Great start to our first year in the top flight, with only a defeat to Olympiacos. I decided to convert Alexis Karybas (23g) into a ST(C) and so far that's paying off as he's bagged 4 goals in the first 6 matches. All with his head I think.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

[Koetzer]

Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur - season 2025

The start was awful, we lost 6 games from first 9 and were bottom of the table, but like in first season at top flight, we bounced back in July. And what a run it was – 10 wins, 2 draws, and before the last matchday we caught the leading KR with only 1 goal behind them! Defending champions KA also had an outside chance for another title.

KR seems to have the strongest opponents on the last matchday, but also the least motivated – Grindavik and Stjarnan are fighting for survival while HK can’t move up to European places.

First half – A.S.Þorsteinsson scored his 15th league goal to give us the lead, but before this KR scored as well. So, the positions remain the same.

80th minute – still 1-0 for KR, we had some chances, but instead conceded an equalizer few minutes after Sævarsson got his second yellow card.

83rd minute – we still have nothing to lose! Long pass from the defense, A.S.Þorsteinsson is first on the ball, runs past the goalkeeper and passes to Steingrimsson against the empty net! 2-1, is there a chance?

92nd minute – and HK equalizes!!! Óliver Steinar Guðmundsson, former Atalanta youth player, can become a real Njarðvík hero, we only need to keep this score for 3 more added minutes…

That surely was one of the best title deciders I’ve ever had in FM. Almost lost all hope after a red card and Grindavik equalizer, but somehow everything turned in our favor. And yes, the team still can’t believe that we won’t be relegated next season  

League Cup and Iceland Cup – as I mentioned, we were awful at start so both cups ended early.

Transfers – nothing notable.

Squad stats – A.S.Þorsteinsson is our biggest star without any doubt. Scored less than last season, but we had less games without playing in Europe. Bjarnason once again had the highest average rating, he’s quite a good defender but still I don’t understand how he manages to play so much better than anyone else in our team. Matthias Arnarsson has the best crossing ability in our squad, so he’s the first choice for corners and indirect free kicks. Far from Plazonic’s skills and performance, but still assisted for some important goals.

Youth intake (preview)

Guðjónsson *25a | Kristjánsson *25b | Arnarson *25c | Þórarinsson *25d | Hjartarson *25e | Kristinsson *25f | Steinarsson *25g | Rúnarsson *25h

Two good goalkeepers at once, that’s quite rare. I guess they will compete for the number one spot when Błąkała starts declining. Two wingers are next in the list, not too bad but we already have promising youngsters on these positions in the first team.

The new stadium is going to be completed in few months, and Champions League run should give us some money (don’t hope for the CL group stage, but probably we'll have a chance on lower levels).

 

@XaWhope you'll get your version of Þorsteinsson soon, lack of good attackers in the intakes surely stalls the team development  

[BustaRaymes]

#FM20

Chesham United 2022/2023 - season 3

Vanarama National South

A difficult season, as we were struggling to stay clear of the relegation zone for much of the season.

In the end we only lost 8 points compared to previous season, but the decline felt worse as we could only string a few results together at the end of the season.

I played a bit with 4-2-3-1 in the cup games, using Clayton as a left winger, and it made us little harder to beat while also generating less goals. We were a tough nut to crack for Vanarama National clubs. I might be implementing this next season in the bigger games. The usual 4-4-2 is very direct and adventurous, which sees us regularly leaking 3 or 4 goals against stronger opponents. 

Cups

We reached the first round of the FA Cup, in which we lost to Ebbsfleet

Same goed for FA Trophy: first round loss to Swindon

Squad

Although they are not yet up to VNS level qualitywise, regens Bromage, Glendon and Russell are holding their own pretty well and should be carrying the team for the forseeable future. John Webb was a surprise package, he wasn't marked as a huge talent but developed very quickly in his first year in U18. He claimed a starting spot after a few games and hasn't left the team since. Chris Adams and Paul Clark are ready to replace Philpott and Onyemah, but those two are too important to bench just yet.

Murphy is turning 36 soon and will be benched in favor of Darren Bell, who at 19 years finally started developing his CA into yellow stars. Martin is 34 but there's not really a backup for him. Adams will get more playing time at MR to aid his development. Steve Brown is retiring and David Pearce will leave on a free transfer.

Bunting and Clayton were - again - the reason we ended the season in relative safety.

 

Youth Intake

I was promised a golden generation, a great centre back and a talented Angolan winger:

I'm satisfied, but I wouldn't call this a golden generation. The centre backs are, well, not there and the Angolan winger is decent at best.

Also, this Jordan Henderson is exactly the type of player the real one is. Just worse.

Harrop is going to the first team, mainly to be mentored but also because he could add depth to our left side options.

Anthony Taylor has lost some years and gained some hair. Those facts are enough to be interested to see what he can develop into. Our right side will probably have an opening in a year.

Flynn needs some mentoring too, and I kind of like his starting point. We have enough left backs for now but he could be useful in time.

 

Finances

Look mom, no money!

I honest don't know how to generate money in the forseeable future. Board won't even let me or the staff do coaching courses. I need sellable players or a surprise promotion.

<3

 

Edit: removed attachment

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by BustaRaymes

[Elsjorro]

Cottbus 2032-2033

 

So, no losses this time around. It is pretty quiet around our players. So that's a good thing i suppose.

 

 

So let's start with the preview this time. I allready shared it: It was an absolute banger of an preview. So if the game is going to be nice to me, we can expect a lot of potential first team players. We are especially in need of decent strikers. And to be very specific: i need a fast striker who can finish better than 4/20.

 

 

The intake itself: OMG. So from the back of my head: Pressolat, Gunaydin and Hortnagl are going right into the first squad. Geisler, our best midfielder who has been here since the beginning, is going downhill pretty fast. So its good to know we have something coming that will take that spot hopefully. And with Hortnagl (Best name ever) we got our so needed striker. As soon as he hit 16 he went into the squad and delivered instantly with 3 goals in 5 matches. Man this is gonna be good. I feel the iprovements finally are paying off. We again upgraded everything. We now have:

 

Good trainingfacilities

Best Youthfacilities

Exceptional youth

Exceptional scouting

 

 

 

So here they come:

Schulteze, will need a lot of work. I think Lekaj will be more talented.

 

Pessolat. I would love to make him an ML, but i think thats a pitty because he will be a ver very decent playmaker. 

Landshutter, could be our future MR:

Schultze: Need some help with this one. if i can get his physic up, i would love to make him a CB. 

Gunaydin. He is a CB he says, but im not buying it with 6 for heading. So he will be a MC to. 

Our new world class striker. Finally a striker with decent finishing. Im allready a season further then this one, i can tell u: He is lit.

Karbstein, what is it with these strikers with **** finishing? Completly useless, but he has talent so we gonna try to make something different out of him

 

Decent LB. Hope he makes it, cause Forro seems to be at his max capabilities with 3 stars. 

 

So the season itself:

 

 

So, i changed in a lot of youngsters again. I was very happy to see that we didnt really lose more points than usual. Martins became a regular as soon as he hit 16 and also Hortnagl came in when he hit 16. Filled with All time legends like Osei, Haupstein and Alhassan this is gonna be a good bunch. Im quite certain, if they all stay and develop they way i would like to see, we can hit top bundesliga 2. in about 3/4 seasons.